Using Linux without X

Luke, the author of "Terminally Incoherent" took some notes on his blog about some cool console applications. This post caught my attention (from osnews.com, I believe) and I decided to promote it further.

He believes that it is possible to survive on Linux without X and I agree, but that idea is now being avoided as much as possible by users and distributions. The idea of avoiding the console is not necessarily bad but, for people that are used to unices for a long time, it is still a powerful tool to do anything and an incredible loss if somehow it gets eliminated.

http://www.terminally-incoherent.com/blog/2007/05/21/a-day-without-x/

The short version of his post follows:

• elinks: web browsing (works well with javascript-less gmail) - I use sometimes.
• mutt: email client
• pine: email client - I used frequently.
• freetalk: jabber IM client
• naim: IM client
• irssi: IRC client
• raggle: RSS feed reader
• midnight commander: file manager
• zgv: image viewer
• mplayer: media player (supports ASCII output!!) - I use frequently.
• vim/emacs: text editing/coding/whatever - I use vim frequently.
• cplay: music player
• rtorrent: P2P (bittorrent) - I use frequently.
• twin: console window manager (YES!)
• screen: multiplex pseudo terminals onto one shell - I use frequently.

Update [2007-05-31]: links and a few extra apps posted.

Cheers, PJ.